“You’ve been suffering from heavy work, aren’t you sleepy?”
This isn’t the time to be doing this. Rest. If you stayed up for three nights, you should sleep.
“If you were worried about my sleep, you shouldn’t have run away. Didn’t my sleep time decrease because I wasted time catching you who went to the separate palace yesterday?”
It seemed Eldon had chased after me from his office in the middle of work after hearing I had gone to the separate palace.
Last night, when I returned to the Crown Prince’s Palace from Baekui Palace, Leon was standing there glaring at me with burning eyes. It was a look like a loyal retainer who hates the bewitching concubine ruining the nation. He was so full of rage that I thought I had possessed Yang Guifei or something.
“I didn’t run away, I just went to where I originally stayed. Your Highness, would it not be acceptable to return there, at least until the ceremony?”
Even setting aside my own issues, the Crown Prince’s Palace wasn’t suitable for Hereis or Forti. I was also anxious about Eldon and Hereis running into each other frequently, and worried that Forti might face discrimination. But he refused flatly.
“No. I’ve experienced being apart enough. From now on, I’ll keep you by my side.”
It seems I’ve been firmly marked as the obsessive top’s toy.
“After using the entire separate palace, staying here feels a bit cramped. I need to paint too.”
“I’ll give you the second floor.”
“The second floor?”
“Yes, you can use it as you wish. And if you don’t want it, I won’t assign any other palace attendants until the wedding.”
If he was being this considerate, I had no excuse to return. If I kept insisting here, it would only raise needless suspicion about what ulterior motive I had.
Though my escape failed, I should be satisfied that I secured a space where Forti and Hereis could stay comfortably.
“…Thank you.”
When I answered while bowing my head slightly, Eldon smiled. He reached out and cupped both my cheeks. And his lips approached.
Knock knock.
“Your Highness, Sir Leon is waiting.”
I hurriedly pushed Eldon away. Damn, I almost got swept up again.
“Your Highness, please get ready quickly.”
I quickly got down from the bed and tried to pick up Eldon’s shoes rolling on the floor, but he wrapped his arm around my waist.
“You don’t need to do such things.”
“Pardon?”
“Rather, I’d like you to explain something…”
Eldon reached toward the side table with a suddenly chilly face. Then he picked up the red apple with bite marks.
“Why didn’t you eat the Rosana?”
This bastard is suddenly raising a death flag when things were going well.
If I say I don’t like it because it’s ominous since Rosenthal liked it in the original work, I’ll be treated like a crazy person.
I removed the left hand wrapping around my waist and smiled broadly.
“…Because I don’t like apples.”
“There was no such report.”
When did you investigate my eating habits?
“It seems my tastes changed after I lost my memory.”
“But I know you ate them very well even after coming to the Imperial Palace.”
Weren’t you busy? If you have time to check my diet, rest! Take a break!
“This humble one truly dislikes apples. All this time, it wasn’t me but Raki who ate them. Raki likes apples, you see.”
Though Raki actually prefers grapes over apples…
“Is that so? To even look after your attendant, the Crown Princess has a generous heart.”
It wasn’t sarcasm, just a normally dry voice. To readily believe my words without any suspicion, isn’t this a first? I was about to shed tears of emotion, when Eldon, who had been walking toward the door in his shoes, suddenly stopped.
“However.”
“Yes?”
“If by any chance those words are a lie, you’d better prepare yourself, Crown Princess.”
Eldon delivered a chilling warning, then went outside.
***
‘Creak.’
Prepare myself? For what?
‘Tremble tremble tremble.’
What is he planning to do?
After Eldon left for his office with that chilling warning, I immediately ran to Raki’s room. But it was already too late. Eldon had taken Raki one step ahead of me. Having missed my chance to coordinate stories with Raki, I couldn’t even go back to my room out of fear and was sitting in the second-floor reception room, trembling with terror.
“Rosenthal, don’t bite your nails.”
Forti firmly grasped my hand.
“Ah, yeah.”
I was so nervous that the nail-biting habit had revived. I nodded and removed my hand, when he placed his hand on my thigh.
“Don’t shake your leg either.”
“Yeah…”
Did I just get scolded by Forti? Pull yourself together, Rosenthal. No matter how scared you are, you can’t be like this.
I straightened my back. Then Forti laid his head on my thigh and gently hugged my waist.
“And don’t get hurt, Rosenthal.”
Forti thought I had been bedridden for three days with a severe flu. Though I felt guilty about lying, the truth was still too mature to tell him, so I ended up hiding it unintentionally.
“Of course. With our Forti here, I can’t get hurt.”
I stroked Forti’s hair that reached down to his waist, then pulled both his ears. The fluffy texture healed my exhausted body and mind.
“Mmm, Rosenthal.”
Forti hugged my waist deeply and rubbed his head. The healing energy wrapped around my entire body and peace was arriving…
“Forti?”
Forti suddenly bit my thigh. Thinking it was playful, I stayed still, but his head moved toward the inner thigh, toward a private place.
This bastard!
I pushed Forti’s head away forcefully.
“Ah! That hurts!”
“You little bastard! What are you doing!”
Like a grandmother scolding a disobedient grandson, I smacked his bottom repeatedly.
“Rosenthal, I feel bad.”
“What?”
Is he angry because I hit him? It was playful so it shouldn’t have hurt? Is Forti going through a delayed adolescence?
Seeing Forti coldly frozen made one side of my heart feel heavy. I was trying to raise him well, showing him only good things until he got married, but is it already the turbulent period? Well, he’s actually already an adult in real age, but still, I feel hurt.
“You smell like that guy, Rosenthal.”
Ah, it’s not adolescent turbulence but his dog nose—no, wolf nose—that activated.
“Ah, r-really?”
“What were you doing for three days?”
“……”
How could I explain that I did this and that, which is too stimulating for young Forti to know?
“Geez, Forti, really. How careless.”
I wiped the sauce on his lips. I intended to divert his attention, but Forti coldly swatted my hand away.
“Rosenthal is careless. Don’t get covered in that guy’s scent!”
It seems he’s quite sulky.
“Sorry. I was a bit careless.”
I sheepishly scratched my head and admitted my fault. But is this something to apologize for? What am I apologizing for? The crime of getting covered in a scent Forti dislikes and making him uncomfortable?
Even while apologizing, I felt somewhat ambiguous, when Forti hugged me tightly again.
“If you do this again next time, I’ll scold you.”
Oh my, he’s going to scold me.
“Okay. I won’t. Don’t scold me. I’m scared when Forti scolds me.”
“I’ll really make it scary.”
“Oh no. I’m scared.”
“I’m serious.”
“I’m really scared. I’m trembling.”
Well, is there a need to nitpick everything? It’s fine as long as he’s cute. I was stroking Forti’s hair nestled in my chest when worry bloomed again.
Is Raki doing well?
In the original work, he was glorified because he took the blame for Rosenthal’s sins while worrying about his master pitifully until the very end, but objectively speaking, Raki wasn’t that great of a retainer. I suppose it’s the fate of a sub-villain’s subordinate, but he made minor mistakes every time he carried out Rosenthal’s orders, ultimately putting Rosenthal in crisis.
But regardless of the original work, Raki had been good to me so far. Besides, how could you make such a good kid do bad things from the start? There’s no way it would work out properly.
Right, it’ll be fine. It’s not particularly a bad thing, and he’ll speak tactfully.
I was regaining peace of mind by playing with Forti’s ears again, when he suddenly sat up.
“But where did Harry go? Harry was really sick.”
It seems Forti was also very worried about Hereis.
“Yeah. He recovered and went on vacation to rest well.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
Probably…
“I like Harry.”
A cough burst out as if I had choked.
Wait, when did the arrow of love point in that direction? This was a world where every character that appeared went straight into Seha’s fish farm. I thought Forti, who wasn’t a novel character, might take a different route, but to think it would be Hereis.
Since when? Honestly, Forti and Hereis’s relationship wasn’t bad, but still, should I say they conversed with Raki and me in between? I don’t think they were that close… Come to think of it, Arleigh also seemed interested in Hereis. At this rate, instead of me, is Hereis going to become the sub-uke?
“I-is that so? Forti likes Harry?”
“Yeah. He praised me. He told me to stay by Rosenthal’s side, that I have excellent skills so I’m a great guard, that being a Beastman doesn’t matter, and not to care what other people say.”
So he said such things to Forti. He’s such a kind person.
“You were close with Harry.”
Forti shook his head.
“Harry praised me, but I couldn’t say thank you. It felt like a lie.”
“Harry isn’t the kind of person to lie like that.”
“I know. I knew, but I was too embarrassed to say anything. So this time he was sick, really sick, but I couldn’t even heal him and couldn’t say anything again. I like Harry, but I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t help at all.”
I hugged Forti tightly. It wasn’t the arrow of love. But it was deeper than that.
Forti wanted to build a relationship with another person on his own. He regretted not being able to convey his gratitude to Hereis. I felt like he had grown a level.
“Let’s tell him after Harry comes back.”
“What if Harry hates me? Even when Harry praised me I didn’t say thank you, he gave me candy but I didn’t say thank you, he corrected how I hold my sword but I couldn’t say anything, and I couldn’t even heal him.”
I stretched out the ears of Forti, who had a tearful face.
“It’s okay! If it’s Harry, he already knows Forti’s feelings.”
“Ro-Rosenthal. I’m a little hurt.”
“Sorry!”
The soft fur texture felt so good that I pulled harder than I thought.
